Love how when you are a comic fan for long enough you always eventually have one ‘obscure’ character, which can range from a side character that almost no one but you has ever heard of to like an average b lister hero with a consistent ongoing book, who you are delusionally convinced just needs that one good mainstream adaptation and they would become universally beloved and acclaimed overnight.
The thing about Dani Moonstar is, as a Native woman in Marvel Comics, I cannot begin to express how unhappy I am whenever she starts dating a white man.
Native (and Native-coded) women in media created by non-Indigenous people almost exclusively exist to serve as appendages to a white man in some capacity, but most frequently as the Chief's Daughter trope. (Yes, even when not literally, but otherwise all the check-boxes are met.)
Even if you try to argue that Dani is "equal" with Kian, the latest white (?) boy being forced down her character's throat, the larger context really sours it for me. Do I think it will be as bad as when she was paired with Nate Grey? God, I can't imagine, because that shit was atrocious. But passing a bar so low it's underground means that's not really an accomplishment.
If Dani's gotta be with a man at all for some stupid reason, put her with a Native man. Remember when she and Jimmy Proudstar had a flirty thing back in 1983 New Mutants? That was cute! Or make up some other dude that's not as bland as drywall, please.
Contrary to popular belief, Dick Grayson is not a womanizer nor some godly sex-symbol that uses his body to his advantage.
It's shown pretty often that he shuts down compliments/cat-calls (because some of them just are cat-calls) with very obvious uneasiness and awkwardness.
Some proof here:
He doesn't parade his body around and if anything, seems to have an insecurity:
(all images are taken from this post, detailing exactly why Dick is not supposed to be a sex symbol and why it goes against his character. Go give it a read !)
Now to get to the actual point of this post: Where does this insecurity stem from?
I want to preface this by saying that I, myself, haven't been able to find a concrete reasoning from the comics themselves yet — and it could be very well that I have missed it. If so, you are free to crucify and correct me in the notes.
However, I'd like to pitch in the idea that this insecurity could stem from him being a performer. As one myself (although I am more dance/theater based) I can attest to the fact that performing in any way in front of an audience during your childhood/around pre-teen age will most likely have you develop a weird relationship with your body. When each and every part of you is put on display, you will begin to obsess over it. Especially if you want your performances to be perfect. Because for a performance to be perfect everything has to be right, like your costumes and movements. And for your costumes and movements to be right, your body has to look a certain way.
And I'm not saying that he was shamed for his body in any way by his family members or his fellow circus performers, because you don't have to be, to develop a weird relationship with the way you see your body. Even an off-handed comment about your body can trigger such thinking. Just as a clarification.
Him being a vigilante also gives him enough reasons to scrutinize his body in terms of how far it can carry him and etc.
There is also the countless of catcalls and sometimes even SA he goes through that only complicates this further.
Many people have pitched the idea about him leaning into this sexualization as a way to cope, but I just don't think it is the case here. Especially since he himself actively shuts down any attempt at sexualizing him.
Anyways, just food for thought and I felt compelled to share this to see what other people think of this !
Selina Kyle Is Perfect for Bruce and... Maybe That’s the Problem
I love Selina Kyle. Honestly, I think she’s probably the best romantic partner Bruce has ever had. She doesn’t just understand Batman; she understands the compulsion, the emptiness, the obsession, the crushing weight of Gotham, and Bruce’s almost self-destructive need to keep going no matter what it costs him. Selina doesn’t idealize Bruce Wayne or ask him to stop being Batman. She knows every side of him and accepts all of it. That’s exactly why they work so well together.
But that’s also the problem.
Selina is perfect for the Bruce that exists right now: the broken, obsessive Bruce who cannot escape the cycle. And because of that, their relationship also becomes one of the biggest obstacles to his evolution within canon. If Bruce were ever allowed to truly change (to heal, to become genuinely happy, to build a stable life outside of Batman) then their dynamic wouldn’t work in the same way anymore. Their compatibility is rooted in shared darkness and in the mutual acceptance of pain.
That’s why I’ve always found it interesting that DC never fully committed to marrying them. They tried to frame it as Selina realizing that a happy Bruce would stop being Batman, and that this would somehow betray who he is. But I think there’s another possible reading there: maybe Selina herself wouldn’t be able to love Bruce in the same way if he stopped being that broken version of himself.
And I don’t mean this as criticism of Selina. I adore her. But her role in canon also functions as a way of preserving Bruce’s status quo. In contrast, Lois Lane has always supported Clark/Superman’s growth rather than limiting it. Lois helps Clark evolve. Selina helps Bruce remain the same.
i say this often and i’ll probably continue to say it — while dani is well-adjusted, do not for a single moment think that means she isn’t traumatized.
i feel like out of all the new mutants dani’s trauma is the most overlooked because it’s all internal. she has such complex emotions and inner dialogue because she refuses to let herself be weak. while everyone else get to have emotional outbursts, dani isn’t allowed to, because she’s dangerous.
she wouldn’t let herself crack because if she cracks, so does her self control, and she will never let that happen.
grant morrisons madonna/whore complex in their new x-men run and how it impacted jean/emma/scott 🧵
a meta written in a feminist perspective on the way jean grey and emma frost's dynamic is written, especially in relation to scott summers, and how gross morrison's (perhaps unintentional) use of the madonna-whore dichotomy is.
(for reference, my sources/citations for any panels or images will be italicized at the end of the paragraph. additionally, this is not a criticism of emma frost or jean grey or the scott/emma relationship. i am not a jeanscott shipper and i do not want jean back with that man)
the madonna/whore complex is a psychological phenomenon coined by sigmund freud in the early 1900s. while freud's psychology is, at best, a little.. weird, this phenomenon can still be observed in many fictional and real life stories alike. the core of the complex is some men's inability to love and lust after a woman at the same time. in this complex, a woman is either a madonna (akin to mary, mother of jesus; pure and virginal) or a debauched whore. there is no in-between.
in this dynamic, jean is the "madonna". she is described as being above human emotion and her relationship with scott is “pure and special”. throughout the entirety of new xmen, her and scott’s relationship is essentially nonexistent. scott isn’t able to talk to the "holy" jean nor is he able to engage in any sexual activity with her. (new x-men #139, new x-men #142)
morrison uses a blatantly misogynistic dialogue to describe this situation which goes with the entire basis of madonna/whore: “Where such men love they have no desire, and where they desire they cannot love” (new x-men #128)
aside from the fact that jean only wore a corset when she was being raped, mind-controlled, and in a non consensual relationship with mastermind, the phrase “she ran around in a corset for everyone but with me it’s sensible shoes . . .” describes the love/desire dichotomy that freud discussed. in morrisons own words, scott felt disconnected from jean (and needed to be “given” to someone else) because she was ascending to godhood (see: the madonna) and could no longer ask her to engage in his taboo desires. this is where emma as the “whore” comes in (comic creators on x-men)
scott is able to use emma as a tool for his sexual desires and kinks as jean is now too pure, the “love” half of this relationship. he uses her as a “sex therapist”. emma is now beneath him, her previous aristocratic status as the white queen notwithstanding. she dresses up as jean—specifically as jean in the worst part of her life, and acts like her ("you'll be scott and i'll be jean", "so anyways, i'm fire and life incarnate", "do you like me with red hair", "you're making me lose control. i'm going to explode with my passion and fry the stars". all clear references to jean during the dark phoenix saga). a deep trauma that scott witnessed firsthand. additionally, the dark phoenix is part of jeans holy ascension. within this dynamic, . scott is free to discard emma at any time—this isn't his beloved wife, he has no love, only “desire”. (new x-men #131, new x-men #138)
emma verbatim states this, saying that jean and scott have a “pure love” and asking herself and wolverine why she had to fall in love with scott summers. emma’s entire role in new xmen was to act as the scandalous auntie emma and a sex object, as morrison stated she only started the affair with scott to get revenge on jean. jean on the other hand continuously gets more divine until her eventual death and then her actual departure in endsong… a mini where jean like, literally, ascends and starts out with emma and scott in bed. it could not be more obvious. the “here comes tomorrow” arc also has jean becoming the white phoenix..oh and scott and emma need to fuck to save the timeline. right. (new x-men #154)
jeans “madonna” status and emma’s “whore” status linger even in the era where jean is dead and emma is meant to be scott’s one true love. jean is honored in death while writers are unable to write emma as anything but second to scott no matter what, even at her peak as a leader. she always has to be attached at the hip to him. jean, on the other hand, is forced to be the central character in almost every arc she appears in (specifically, with the phoenix).
(i apologize if this sounds crude or hateful, english is not my first language. i am criticizing writers decisions regarding emma here, not trying to hate on emma.)
also, emma is a victim of intimate partner violence at the hands of cyclops. say what you want about the phoenix corrupting them (or how OOC avx is, it still exists unfortunately) but magik, piotr, emma, and namor didn’t become abusive at any point.. lol. these panels are specifically meant to evoke a feeling of assault. there is an eerie resemblance to rape in the way her phoenix fragment is forcibly taken from her body by cyclops, her boyfriend, who overpowers her and ignores her pleading cries for him to not touch her along with him forcing himself on top of her body. (avengers vs x-men #11, uncanny x-men #4. note that the second panel is directly from emma's mind and how she remembers this incident.)
she is literally discarded by him in a similar way jean was discarded at the time of her death in new xmen and then in endsong (moreso by the writers and not scott). in the end, in jean and emma's cases and in the overall psychological complex, both the madonna and the whore in this phenomenon are harmed by the man. there is no winner
"This panel provides us with Northstar as a sort of paradigm of a superhero who is “correct,” “neat,” “sane,” etc. His presence lays plain Aurora’s “deviance.” By aligning the siblings with “correctness” and “wrongness,” “sanity,” and “insanity,” in this way, the story presents a powerful gendering of the superpowered mind. Furthermore, because both siblings have endured the same traumatic loss, they form a kind of “twin study” of trauma in the comic book genre, demonstrating that, while male heroes can remain “sane” after trauma, superwomen do not. The differences between Aurora and Northstar in this issue illustrate that the mechanism through which trauma on the comic book page operates is a clearly gendered one.”
-Cynthia Bonacum, "What Am I to Do About You? I Fear You May Be…
Quite Mad:" An Exploration of the Mad Duperheroine
on the Comic Book Page